P Chidambaram Calls Health Budget "Conjurer's Trick"
Senior Congress leader and former Finance Minister P Chidambaram called the health budget a "conjurer's trick". Mr Chidambaram said that "this jump from Rs 90,000-odd crore to Rs 223,000 crore is by adding the cost of vaccination and by adding the Finance Commission grants and by adding the allocation for the department of water and sanitation. Why is that a separate department if it's under health and family welfare? You can't add water and sanitation grants and boost your numbers. If you take out all these numbers, the increase is only modest."
